CAPA should cancel plans to produce the racist musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” There should be no place in our public schools for productions that devalue and debase any group of people. The musical is offensive. It features characters who are racist caricatures and in yellow-face, as well as a subplot focused on a "white slavery" ring kidnapping women for the sex trade in Asia. Administrators plan to edit the play, but this does not solve the problem. The racism of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” cannot be edited out. Cosmetic changes do not alter the play’s history. Modifying some elements of a racist production will not make the play acceptable. Producing a sanitized version of “Millie” is a way of sanctioning racism—saying that it is OK if we hide it. We are calling for CAPA to DROP PLANS TO PRODUCE MILLIE. CHOOSE ANOTHER PLAY.

Children are not getting the education they need. The information they obtain in the classroom from teachers and textbooks is only half of the learning spectrum. The other half is experience and the way students get this is from participating in field trips. In the U.S. however, school field trips are in a decline that is as bad as 40-60%. There are organizations and programs in place now that are offered from the private sector to stop this decline, but they cannot meet the demand that they need to. These programs can allocate only so much money and it is not enough for all the schools in the nation that are being hurt in this situation. The U.S. government needs to implement a policy that will keep field trips in the curriculum for students, and also will create a team that is dedicated to finding out ways to make field trips live up to their full potential so that the students can benefit in the greatest way possible from them. By creating this team and having them in place it will ensure that the bill passed forth will stay on track even into the local sector, and will also research new ways for students to obtain the experiential learning they require. Having this program in place will greatly heighten children’s education because of the field trips that they will be experiencing.

I am a teacher educator. My students spend four years preparing to be teachers, including spending three years in k-12 schools, hands-on learning how to work with kids. They learn curriculum, methods, learning sciences, motivation, multicultural education, how to work with students with disabilities, and many other skills necessary to prepare America's children for the world they'll live in. The Every Student Succeeds Act (to replace No Child Left Behind) includes provisions for the establishment of nationwide 'Teacher Preparation Academies'--fast tracks to teacher licenses that leave out almost every essential aspect of teacher education. These academies are run by corporations. They don't take into consideration the needs of the particular areas where they are established. Their only purpose is to instruct teachers to "teach to the test." Worst of all, the ESSA requires states to consider these 'teacher factories' the equivalent of Master's degrees! States are no longer allowed to decide what is best for their teachers. The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss explains just how this law works to undermine university programs in her recent blog (1). This is Teach for America on steroids--placing unqualified teachers with no experience and little training in the poorest of our nation's schools. However, because these academies will be funded by the government and venture philanthropists, they present a grave threat to university programs, whose budgets are being cut every day. The ESSA has already passed the House. We need to tell the U.S. Senate not to pass the ESSA with this provision in place. Please sign, and call your senators! 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/12/05/the-disturbing-provisions-about-teacher-preparation-in-no-child-left-behind-rewrite/

“The first three years of life are a period of incredible growth in all areas of a baby’s development.” Early Childhood professionals help support infants early brain development, encourage young children as they build their social and emotional skills, and help preschoolers enhance their language and literacy development. But yet preschool teachers are being underpaid. These are the committed women and men who day in, and day out devote themselves to educating and nurturing our own children toward a bright future:now it's our turn to stand behind them. Our children deserve the best: quality teachers that prepare them for success. Our teachers should be respected, appreciated, and appropriately paid. We need to keep our teachers here by treating them fairly.

We want the best for our children and that means standing up for our kids and teachers. We need to retain our amazing teachers and avoid a strike. We need to show the board we are a strong community and we support our teachers. The board and superintendent are more than aware of what they need to do to keep our teachers, it's our turn to stand up and speak out and show them we want the very best for our children and that means keeping the AMAZING teachers in SLZUSD.

Science Park High School (SPHS) is the top achieving public school in Newark, NJ.(1) It has thrived through fiscal cutbacks and a state takeover within an economically impoverished community. The students score 99% proficiency on Language and Math AP/IB exams.(2) This culture has been nurtured under the guidance of strong leadership, Individuals who believe in the children of Newark and strive to make this a competitive school. This culture has been maintained through a community-based hiring process. In which parents, staff and students past or present interview candidates and select leaders to continue this vision. In June of 2015 Lamont Thomas resigned as principal in response to state pressure to privatize education. Upon his resignation Cami Anderson was removed as Superintendent of schools in response to parental backlash at her inadequacies to provide for the students and her misappropriation of power to privatize education in Newark. At this pivotal point, on June 22, 2015 Brad Haggerty, Assistant Superintendent of Newark Public Schools (NPS) met with the Science Park High School Leadership Search Committee (LSC). He as representative of Newark Public Schools agreed that the LSC would work in collaboration with the Newark Talent Search Department in interviewing ideal candidates. Since the appointment of Christopher Cerf as Superintendent the LSC has not received communication from NPS. As a stakeholder within this school and the community I urge you to sign this petition urging Superintendent Cerf to uphold this process. The LSC is a subset of the SPHS Student Leadership Committee (SLC) an organization meant to uphold professional and academic standards in schools through representation of Parents, Alumni, Students and Staff. 1.The Newark Public School. US News and World Report. 2015. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/new-jersey/districts/the-newark-public-schools-105647 2. The Newark Public School. US News and Work Report. 2015.http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/new-jersey/districts/the-newark-public-schools/science-park-high-school-12677

Many students are sleep deprived and a designated nap room would solve the dilemma of lack of concentration and enthusiasm due to exhaustion.

There is currently a petition circulating on MoveOn.ORG that was started by members of the Tuscaloosa Country Club neighborhood located in Westend Tuscaloosa that is requesting the resignation of Mr. Clarence Sutton Sr. as District 1 representative for the Tuscaloosa City School Board. The petition falsely states that Mr. Sutton Sr. was not "elected" when in fact he was elected by majority vote of the sitting board members (http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20150803/NEWS/150809917) which is one of several ways the board can fill vacant seats. The Tuscaloosa Country Club neighborhood is a small section of District 1 and its residents make up less than 2% of District 1's population, yet its residents feel that the interest of their children supersedes the needs of the other 98% of the children in the district. Instead of saying "the heck with *those* other kids" in the district and sending your children outside the district to attend school, why not spend energies concentrating on fixing the problem within the district where your children live? Mr. Sutton has stated that he will not support any plan that does not advocate for *neighbood schools* and the residents of the Tuscaloosa Country Club area do not want their children attending school within the neighborhood which they live. While all parents should want what's best for their children, parents must also realize that they have a responsibility to the upcoming generation as a whole and should want to not only want what's best for their own children, but all children in the surrounding area. As representative to District 1, Mr. Sutton is concerned with the welfare of ALL the children in his district, not just those that reside within this small affluent area. With the mindset of "it takes a village" let's show our support for ALL the children in District 1 by showing your support for Mr. Clarence Sutton Sr.

Removing parental school choices from District 1 is an agenda without a mandate. James Minyard certainly never promoted it. Parents deserve more options for our children, not fewer.

We, the undersigned students and parents of Chicago Public Schools, want to prove that our school lunches are inadequate. Currently the school lunches are terrible. We are fed the same options every day, the food is either overcooked or undercooked, the portions are too small and the quality is poor. We urge our principal, the Chicago Board of Education, and Aramark to act now to allow us to open the lunchroom kiosk, have vending machines, off campus lunch, food delivery, and increased options, portion sizes, and quality in our school lunch. This is important because we eat 1/6th of our meals here annually, and many students refuse to eat it. By signing this petition, we demand that school lunches get better. For more information, please visit http://rhsschoollunch.wordpress.com

The children in RVSD have been negatively affected for many years from the existence of the MAP program in our district. Our district has spent over $100,000 in legal fees in the last year alone and countless hours of board time on the MAP program which consists of approximately 5 % of the total children in RVSD. The current leaders of RVC are the same people that are the leaders of MAP including former RVSD trustees, all the MAP teachers, and the MAP leadership committee. A third party investigator found that MAP program (during its 19 years run by the current RVC leaders) had policies which created the effects of discrimination on protected classes of children. They have had virtually no ELL in MAP and have not translated the petition into Spanish. The existing leaders have known about the inequities with the protected classes of children as far back as 2005 and have done nothing to recruit these children into MAP. Documents exist from 2005 that identify MAP was responsible to translate their materials into Spanish. Now after 19 years of discrimination, these same people are claiming they want to become a charter to reach these children. The ACLU in a letter written to MCOE dated October 9th, 2015 stated that "it appears that the leaders of MAP wish to export the exact program (and its students and teachers) that an independent investigator found was operating in a discriminatory manner into a Charter School which will necessarily have greater autonomy from District oversight (their emphasis)." We will be sending a separate detailed letter to support many more reasons for denial that the people who signed this petition read and support. (http://www.saverossvalleyschools.com/letter-to-state/). Please deny the appeal and support high quality education for ALL the children in RVSD.

We are a community school that serves children in the west Philly and surrounding area with good teachers and staff and we deserve a chance to be heard.